Club 80-90 Forums

Erm, sounds like a silly question - and I think I know the answer. I was out and about in the van on saturday. Loss of power, then it stalled (on a roundabout - but that's a different story!). Couldn't restart easily, managed to get it off the roundabout. Tried to get home, engine kept dying everytime I slowed down (cue no restart). started backfiring on restart, white smoke, then the dreaded oil in the coolant and sounding like a bag of spanners / poss three cylinder firing.

Now, it's a pinto sierra petrol engine (I know, I know!! it was in when I bought it) - I'm pretty sure its a head/gasket as I am familiar with the symptoms. However, I've not tackled something like this before so have no idea what's involved in troubleshooting / fixing the problem.

Your help would be much appreciated!!

I suppose the first thing to do is take the spark plugs and have a good look at the plug tips, if they look anything other than dry then it may be safe to say your diagnosis may be right.
Then Try spinning the motor over with the plugs removed to confirm if any water/gunge has made its way in to a cylinder and can be see being blow out of a plug hole, I would then remove the rocker cover, again to confirm the water in the oil problem you have mentioned (I would expect to see milky deposits on the cam shaft components if it is as bad as you suggest).

These pinto motors are quite straight forward to work on with the help of a Haynes manual for any vehicle using the pinto engine....

Once the gasket has been replaced the mucky job will be cleaning out the water system on your van, this may take quite few attempts of filling and dropping the water (no antifreeze at this stage) so don't expect it to clear after only a couple of system flushes.

Good luck....


regards


Fritz,,,,,,,,

Cheers Fritz - solid advice there! I'll be looking later in the week, I'll try and get pics as I go. Luckily I have the haynes manual - just need to ascertain how bad things are before I get too depressed....

Hi
You say oil in the coolant, have you coolant in the oil? Also you mention rattles which suggests maybe a big or small end. did you see the engine running after its problems? Any sign of balooning of the water houses or leaks from the head/block joint?
As Fritz says the OHC Ford lump is pretty straightforward but usually when they do a head gaskets its water in the oil, not the other way round, I am wondering if you have cracked a head between the valve seats. If you can borrow a compression tester if there is no sign of emulsification on the camshaft and see if a cylinder is down. I would get a cooling system pressure tester on there after that and try it to see if the cooling system is getting pressurisied.
Fortunately there are plenty oof bits out there for these and they are verey easy to work on good luck

quarryman wrote: just need to ascertain how bad things are before I get too depressed....

Hey, don't get depressed, be happy, if it was a VW flat 4 you might be looking at £1000+ for a re-con engine

At worst, even if you had to replace the whole motor, a good used Pinto motor is dead cheap from the breakers

I've not had the chance to delve too deeply since Saturday - but there was steam coming from the oil filler which didnt strike me as too great.
loss of power was most distinct in second - was still able to pull in first, but was intent on getting it home in one piece!
Compression test would be a good place to start - I'll try and find one. The lump is pretty oily- but levels still ok, so its not like its losing significant oil. coolant header tank was under a lot of pressure when I did stop - had leaked a little bit too - the pressure valve on the top bubbled pretty furiously when I lifted to check - so my instinct would say its still pressured.
Been a while since I got too up close with any engine that has more than two cylinders - mind you I'd hope this was less complex to fix than on my old ducati!

Hi
What Ghost says is spot on. Personally I love the pinto lump, apart from in fords I had one in a beetle and worked a lot on a friends type !! with a ford in it. Used to build engines for a friend who rallycrossed a MKIII cortina, first thing he used to do was pull the head off a 'new' pinto and get 20 thou skimmed off the block. Theres still loads of bits and tuning mods around, Kent cams, webers etc. PM or ring me from the members help section if I can help in any mods you are thinking of.

why not use the situation to fit a recon engine?
that way you know all is good!

a pinto is a simple motor but can have its problems, like camshaft wear due to blocked spraybar!

check the cam if it looks worn then replace , add the costs together and cost up a recon , or DIY with a local engineering shop doing the machining, that way you will get even more satisfaction!

may be worth putting the 205 injection engine in if you havent already!

billy739 wrote:
a pinto is a simple motor but can have its problems, like camshaft wear due to blocked spraybar!

check the cam if it looks worn then replace

iirc, you have to be very careful handling the camshaft spraybar and DON'T wipe the protective oily coating off it, apparently even wiping across the oil spray holes with a rag can alter their profile and spoil the aim of the required jet of lubricant.

So, I still haven't had the time to go and root around too much in the engine - however I did start up my van on Monday. After two weeks standing, it started first time and after a little while to warm up seemed to be running fine. I wasn't able to go for a drive, but left it running for fifteen minutes with the occasional blip of the throttle. Before it had properly wamred up I could make it stall by gassing it and letting off the tthrottle, but only once. After it had warmed up it seemed fine. No smoke, no backfiring.

I wonder if my fears of a blown engine were slightly premature? I am still to check the plugs etc etc - so apologies - I'm lagging behind! Will try and take it round the block on sunday - watch this space.

quarryman wrote: started backfiring on restart, white smoke, then the dreaded oil in the coolant and sounding like a bag of spanners / poss three cylinder firing.

And now it's fixed itself

Very odd

Is it a magic van by any chance, shades of that film "Christine" here

Well I hope all is OK but what about the oil in the water ?

Good luck, fingers crossed for ya !

.

Well, the coolant puddle under the van was oily as was the puddle under the reservoir, these could have been coolant over existing oil (unlikely). I havent drained it yet to be absolutely sure - waiting for spring and some sunlight - wrestling under it in the rain and dark is proving a waste of time - no garage either
Will reserve judgement until I finally get the thing drained, plugs replaced and the engien topped back up and running - I reckon on five years at this rate